Feasibility study relating to the use of high gain lasers, particularly HF, in controlled fusion applications

Two systems were considered, HF and KrF, with by far the predominant effort being expended on HF. A short discussion of KrF is presented. Many of the problems discussed in the context of HF are general even though the solutions may be specific to HF. An outline of design constraints is presented, including pellet irradiation criteria, HF-system characteristics, and material damage thresholds. Several potentially useful techniques are considered for handling high-gain lasers. Angular multiplexing in the final stage of an HF system is considered as the scheme most likely to succeed. Several possible geometries for the final amplifier are considered and one is chosen for further study. Detailed model calculations were performed for the prototype HF amplifier. The input power required to suppress ASE, amplifier gain as a function of input power, and the problem of transverse ASE are addressed. A prototype multikilojoule HF laser with on-target pulse duration of 1 ns is described.